Cementation Americas says it is partnering with Komatsu on a groundbreaking technology trial of the MC51 hard-rock continuous miner at Niobec’s namesake mine site in Québec, Canada.
The MC51 is designed to transform hard-rock excavation using DynaCut technology, an undercutting disc technology for mechanical cutting.
The machine has a cutter on a single, five-axis robotic boom that can profile any shape within a nominal 5 x 5 m profile, according to Komatsu. It is also able to cut within 50 mm of plan, with the resultant excavations exhibiting high tunnel quality and a reduction of over break.
After the machine cuts the rock into consistently-sized small chunks, the material is gathered into the centre and conveyed to LHDs, trucks or external conveyors to be hauled away.
The result of more than 10 years of research and development, the MC51 is fully electric, outputting zero emissions. It also offers increased levels of automation, with the machine able to be operated remotely via line of sight.
Many of these functions have been tested in some form on previous mining-related assignments at Newmont’s Cadia copper-gold operation, in New South Wales, Hillgrove Resources’ Kanmantoo copper project, in South Australia, and, most recently, the Garson mine in Sudbury.
Cementation Americas says the full-scale trial at Niobec will put the MC51’s capabilities to the test in real-world conditions. Over the length of the trial, it hopes to meet or exceed current conventional drill and blast excavation rates.
“The work on-site will further highlight how the MC51 delivers precision cutting optimised for medium-hard rock, reducing costs and cycle times associated with overbreak,” it added. “Equally important, this technology has the potential to drastically improve the health and safety and risk management by eliminating the need for explosives in mine development and removing people from a critical hazard zone.”
Based in Saint-Honoré in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, Niobec has been in production since 1976. It is one of only three global producers of niobium, and the only producer located outside of Brazil. Located only 500 km from Montreal and 200 km from Quebec City, Niobec is supported by infrastructure including readily available and 100% renewable electricity sources. Niobec is a vertically integrated manufacturing facility and produces a final product that is sold directly to steel producers worldwide.
At the underground mine, Niobec employs open-stope mining, with stopes typically drilled, loaded with explosives and detonated. Blasted ore falls to the lowest level where it is gathered and transported to a crusher and then hoisted to surface.
